No, actually there's an else missing :-) In all three pieces routines. | if (parentLoader instanceof ClassNotFoundHandler) | parent = (ClassNotFoundHandler) parentLoader; | + else | + { | ClassLoaderPolicy parentPolicy = getClassLoaderPolicy(parentLoader); | if (parentPolicy != null) | parent = parentPolicy; | + } | If we know the parent implements Class*Handler then the second part is redundant. The second part is there for if you put a ClassLoaderToLoaderAdapter as the parent rather than a Domain, like it does for web-apps. Then you've got to do a bit of a dance to get the parent's ClassNotFoundHandler. adapter -> BaseClassLoader -> ClassLoaderPolicy In practice it will always return null into the parentPolicy for a ClassLoaderDomain which is why I didn't spot it in the testing. View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4266586#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...